Description
Object description
A Military training film produced for showing to British troops and made up almost entirely of library and feature film footage, it outlines the history of the United States from the Pilgrim Fathers to their current rôle in the Second World War. To quote the opening title; 'This film has been made to tell you something about one of your allies, The United States of America, NOT all about it but SOMETHING.'
Full description
REEL 1. A British soldier with his WAAC girlfriend are watching an American gangster film at the cinema. Afterwards, they retire to a railway station bar and the soldier professes to know that the film portrays America accurately. He is overheard by a tired American soldier who begins to dream of home, knowing full well that the British soldier is talking nonsense. The American dreams of his home town and we see small-town America with street scenes and house interiors. He knows the movies are not America and wonders if the British were told how it really was ('fair and square'), would they listen? Cut to a pan of New York skyscrapers, the Statue of Liberty and an explanation of its inscription, 'Give me your tired and poor...'etc, and its importance. We see where the Pilgrim Fathers landed and learn their reasons for going. Towns and countryside are shown. 'The story of America is the story of a great battle...' We get an historical and geographical overview of America from the early 17th century and the first colonists onwards.
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REEL 2. The historical overview continues, illustrated with feature films, photographs and library footage. The American War of Independence '...All men are created equal' etc, and the ideals for which they fought. The establishment of a new nation 'conceived in liberty.' Slavery and cotton. The western expansion. Civil War. Industrial expansion. The importance of US waterways. Chicago as a great industrial city.
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REEL 3. The railway expansion 1860-1870 and the move west, with Chicago as the pivot. Railways and prairies. Agricultural and railway expansion. The film cuts to the US serviceman who had been dreaming all this in the station bar. He now directs his dreams back to his small home town to see 'ordinary, decent American' families, schools, streets, buildings and democracy at work. We see the variation in weather across the continent and throughout the seasons - snow, heat, dust, wind and the problems these cause to both city and rural dwellers. Dust bowls of the 1930s.
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REEL 4. Floods along the Mississippi basin and the resulting devastation. The exploitation of oil, coal and iron leading to the great industrialisation, which is contrasted with the still untamed country. Sport, particularly American football and baseball. The social side of life - dancing, bowling alleys, films (Bob Hope and Bing Crosby), bands and orchestras. The Americans are 'a peace loving people' and they regard their flag like we regard our Royal Family, but they do not like being pushed around or regimented. They do not like to see others pushed around either. Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito are introduced, together with an explanation of the United States' position since 1939 and the assistance given by them to ourselves.
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REEL 5. The Second World War and Britain alone. US assistance. Pearl Harbor. US call-up and her participation from 1942. The massive increase in munitions and supplies to assist in the war effort. Training scenes and landings on Pacific Islands. Fighting at sea, US Air Force scenes (Memphis Belle). The film cuts to the US serviceman in the station bar who is woken from his dreams by the British soldier, who calls out that he will miss his train if he doesn't leave now. The soldier grabs his bags and hurriedly departs, to the comment from the British soldier to his girlfriend that the man was not soldierly at all. Cut to explosions, US flag and US servicemen landing on Pacific Islands. Commentator gives 'liberty or death' speech. The film closes over the US national anthem and flag.
Physical description
35mm